Forum Discussion

Contributor

7 months ago

how to get Object.Name without triggering element search

Hi guys, I know that this topic may sound a bit weird, but I have a very good reasons for it :) Here is my situation... I have a mapped element, containing an xpath, which I need to pass to a func...

Name Mapping

pkudrys
6 months ago
Hi, thanks for the suggestion. It's something I considered as a very last resort. Luckily, I finally found the solution of my problem. It fact, it was "easily" solved by unchecking option "Search for visible objects first".
In my initial post, I mentioned, that the element was not found. But it was not the case! The name mapped element was actually always found, it just took quite a lot of time. And because I was impatient, I (prematurely) terminated the search.
After multiple (unsuccessful) tries of editing the xpath, I also tried to play with TC option. I did not expect anything, but surprisingly, unchecking the above mentioned option helped. After unchecking it, the search returned the element (and so Name property) almost instantly.
It's really weird, because according to the description, this option should be ignored in case there is used xpath expression, which is exactly what I'm using :D So it looks like a TC bug or, at very least, misleading description?

pkudrys

Contributor

7 months ago

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Well, the things are a bit more complicated, than I described in my initial post :) I just did not want to make the post "overcomplicated" to understand. My problem is only a small part of much bigger form filling method, which fills/saves form inputs from/to CSV file.

Here is what I need to achieve:
How to get xpath from alias object | SmartBear Community

Basically, I have two xpaths. One pointing to the "main" form element, containing multiple inputs and their labels. The second one, points to individual labels. I'm using mainForm.FindElements(labelsXpath), which returns list of labels, which I'm then looping and filling individual inputs, belonging to each label.

Because the second xpath is somewhat complicated and it works ONLY if used as a parameter of FindElements, I don't want to store the xpath in a plain variable or action parameter. I want to use the Name Mapping/Aliases, which I consider to be the only proper way, how to store and use xpaths. Using xpaths here or there in variables and modules makes them unmaintainable.

The problem is, that whenever the Name Mapping/Alias object is accessed, TC tests if it's available in UI. But as mentioned above, some of my xpaths are usable ONLY if used via FindElements or similar methods. Therefore, I tried to address the Name Mapping/Alias object as string and convert it back to object, which works great. What does not work, is the Name property, which automatically searches for the element availability.

All I need is some way, how to get the xpath from a stored Name Mapping/Alias element, even if the element is not available in UI. Thanks.

rraghvani
Champion Level 3
7 months ago
I understand your requirements, but it's not possible.

All the methods and properties show in this dialog, is based on the object itself, and not the name mapping storage.

It may have worked for Ranorex, but do not expect the same from TC.

Saying that, you could read the XML file NameMapping.tcNM, search the for node and attribute of you object, to get the desired value of the XPath.
- pkudrys
  Contributor
  6 months ago
  Hi, thanks for the suggestion. It's something I considered as a very last resort. Luckily, I finally found the solution of my problem. It fact, it was "easily" solved by unchecking option "Search for visible objects first".
  In my initial post, I mentioned, that the element was not found. But it was not the case! The name mapped element was actually always found, it just took quite a lot of time. And because I was impatient, I (prematurely) terminated the search.
  After multiple (unsuccessful) tries of editing the xpath, I also tried to play with TC option. I did not expect anything, but surprisingly, unchecking the above mentioned option helped. After unchecking it, the search returned the element (and so Name property) almost instantly.
  It's really weird, because according to the description, this option should be ignored in case there is used xpath expression, which is exactly what I'm using :D So it looks like a TC bug or, at very least, misleading description?
  - AlexKaras
    Champion Level 3
    6 months ago
    Hi,
    
    Well, so, in fact, it appeared that it is not possible to get the value of object's property without finding the object itself. It just appeared possible to shorten search time (due to the fact that sought for object exists and (guessing) is located not deep enough in the XPath search tree).
    
    As for misleading description, I think that this is just not the best wording. To my knowledge, this option is not considered if 'Use XPath and CSS selectors for web objects' project setting is used (under 'Open Applications|Web testing' node) and it is my guess that this option is not selected (not checked) in your project.